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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The Hermitage House Miracle

Hermitage House Miracle

By Malcolm Ater

Summary: The Hermitage House Miracle starts with a deep hook. "I've given you the last six years of my life, and for what? To always be running from one town to another? Never having a life of my own just so you could live?"

As Jamie lay alone in bed, not knowing his mother had just been killed while driving drunk, he was filled with disturbing thoughts. His mother's last words to him before going out did not make sense. He was even more confused when she had added, in a drunken slur, "If I had a lick of sense I'd have let old Ernie do what he wanted!"

Why had his mother said she had given him the last six years of her life when he was twelve years old?

After being sent to live at the Hermitage House for Children, Jamie begins to have a series of strange and troubling dreams. Each dream is about a little blond-haired boy who has a little sister and a mother and a father. But the mother is not his mother who was killed in the car accident and he had never known his father. Yet his dreams are always about the same family, especially the little boy and his dog. And the father programs computers and makes games, even promising to build the boy a video game so lifelike the boy will think he's actually inside it...

Genre: Juvenile, Fantasy

Published: May 26, 2012

Similar: Currently N/A

Rating: 2.5 stars

I had mixed feelings about this book. I can see why it was free for kindle now.

First, I liked it. I thought, well, that's nice, it'll be a book about him finding his family or whatever. (No, that isn't a spoiler--you get that it's going in that direction from his first night at Hermitage House.) Well, at the halfway point it started getting funky. I kept thinking, What the heck? The author took it into a completely different direction than you thought he was going, and I really disliked that direction. Let me put it this way; he should have kept going straight instead of taking a right turn. Now, I had to read more of what can only be described as a realistic fantasy, and I didn't like it. The part about that stupid video game really ticked me off. When the title said miracle, I didn't think it was going to be a literal miracle, and I didn't like that he waited until I was HALFWAY INTO THE BOOK to have that be apparent!

And another thing. This is a spoiler, so if you don't like spoilers, don't read this. The ending was not up to par. The sisters read the letter that he had left to find his family, and, I'm not joking, their reaction was, 'oh, whatever, thanks for the lottery ticket Jamie!' And when the parents saw Jamie, his father saw him and it was a little to...accepting for me. I mean, the rest of the family acted like I think I would act if my dead sibling or child ended up being alive. they were crying and they couldn't believe it. Dad was like,"I knew you would come back!" Umm...no you didn't. He's supposed to be dead. You HOPED he would come back. Also, when Jamie told about Scout, dad was just like, "I think I figured out what's going on! Your dog's spirit never rested! It was always looking for you Jamie, and now he can finally be in peace!" Well, yeah, because I don't know about you, but that is the first explanation that jumps into my head! And apparently, the rest of the family thought the same, because there were no raised eyebrows or anything! (In my head, I kept thinking of the wife going: Oh, honey, you're so smart! It must have been a ghost! Why didn't I see it before?) I might understand if Jamie came up with that...creative idea, but the dad--well, it just seemed to not fit.

Don't get me wrong. I did not hate this book. I liked most of the parts. But the parts that I didn't like I REALLY didn't like. So, I'm not sure I would recommend this book or not. It got increasingly weirder with each chapter. But, if you don't mind that, it's a good book.